Media and Politics: blurring lines ?

http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1130460

Blind faith

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/94472/06_2009/godman_conman2a/conman-or-godman-the-untold-story-of-ashok-jadeja.html

... and greed .... of money, power, knowledge, respect ...

Know your politician - politician writers

Reading their books may be a way to reach out to understand our politicians better.
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/94383/polls-over-writerpoliticians-pick-up-the-pen-again.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/6564/moilys-latest-book-indias-agrarian.html

'Vote Bazaar' by ?

Human Capital

Philanthropy, Leadership, Ambition and Country wide real reform - How do we connect these ?
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/88328/03_2009/realhero_award2/real-heroes-honouring-the-extraordinary-indian.html

Plan: 2009 - 14

President's speech to the Parliament / June 4, 2009
http://presidentofindia.nic.in/sp040609_hindi.html

Results: New Politicians

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/93106/a-look-at-some-high-profile-poll-losers.html

Politics of Youngistan:
http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1118892

Election 2009 Analysis

According to ADR's latest analysis of Lok Sabha 2009 elections:
- Number of MPs with criminal charges has increased by 29%
- BJP has the maximum number of elected MPs with criminal charges (43 = 37%). Congress is second (41 = 20 %)
- The number of MPs with 'very serious' charges has declined.
- If voters have a choice, they prefer a clean candidate

- Average assets of Congress MPs is Rs 6.8 Cr, and BJPs MPs is Rs 3.6 Cr (substantial increase in both since 2004)

- Among the MPs, there are 390 graduates including 130 Post-Grads, and 23 PhDs

Full report here: http://tinyurl.com/qglbgu
Shantanu's related blog post: http://satyameva-jayate.org/2009/05/20/kaun-banega-crorepati/ (thanks Shantanu !)

Suresh Prabhu (Shiv Sena), Left party in general are clean and ethical

http://www.sureshprabhu.in/

Ref:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ZHak1lEr8

Elections 2009 - Final polling % - Around 58%

Same as 2004, which is good as it means that downward trend has been stalled !
Also, some interesting trends at micro level. For eg, voting in Chennai apparently increased by 12% !!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/62-turnout-in-phase-5-overall-57-same-as-04/articleshow/4523144.cms

I am wondering what was the change in 'urban-rural' voting %s ? And what is the age wise polling % ? Let me know if you know.

Chandigarh: urban vote catches up with rural
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090515/cth1.htm

No Criminals - Results ... MPs, Cabinet

Thumbs down to criminals in many constituencies.
But 43 from BJP, and 41 from Congress still get in !!! What % of total fielded made it ?
How many of criminal MPs will get into the Cabinet ? Lets wait and watch.

http://www.ndtv.com/news/elections/no_criminals_in_cabinet_please.php

JP of Loksatta wins, inspite of corrupt politics

Dr J P Narayan won a seat in the constituent assembly.
Loksatta spent less than Rs 1 lakhs per contestant.

http://www.loksatta.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=244&Itemid=60

cheers !

CSDS - Centre for Study of Developing Studies

http://www.csds.in/

... of Prof Yogendra Yadav, CNN-IBN fame

PRS India - Legislative Research

http://www.prsindia.org/

CPR incubated initiative.
Parliamentary research. Brings out bulletins to make things more transparent.

Encouraging voting trends in LokSabha 2009 ?

Middle and upper class voter turnout has been 58%. This has been a trend reversal from the past elections !

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE01Df04.html

Build your stage diases strong :)

Some humorous clips showing stages collapsing (due to overcrowding)
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/91569/watch-politicians-and-their-collapsing-dais.html

Comparison of Party Manifestoes

http://in.elections.yahoo.com/comparemanifesto.html

Know your constituency, state

1. Click on http://www.raftaar.in/election-2009-lok-sabha/ElectionUser.aspx
2. Select your state, constituency
3. Select language
4. Generate code and Add this code on your *website/blogs.*

eg. For Jabalpur and MP, see tables below :

It seems 13 candidates are contesting this time from Jabalpur. Tradionally, the key battle is between BJP (Candidate this time : Mr Rakesh Singh) and Congress (Candidate this time : Mr Rameshwar Neekhra). Ref : http://ibnlive.in.com/politics/partylist.php?phase=2&cons=MADHYA_PRADESH

Also see: http://myneta.info/jabalpur

MP:
Uma Bharti - http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1126725

Politics - Nuts and Bolts

Find some questions and answers on Shantanu's blog :
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2008/09/01/politics-nuts-and-blots/

Election Funding

The official spending limit for a lok sabha candidate is Rs 25 lakhs, and for constituency candidate is Rs 15 lakhs. However, in practice, much more may be spent : Rs 10-15 Crores for Loksabha candidate and Rs 2-6 Crores for an Assembly candidate (according to Hindu Article : see below). This amount may be doubling every 5 years.

The biggest head (65-75%) in the expenditure seems to be 'buying voters', including liquor expenses. Other "major heads of poll spending are: engaging at least 2,000 active men for campaigning, poll management and counting; hiring or purchasing, and maintaining, vehicles; organising publicity material; opening village-level offices; preparing and distributing voter slips; fetching electors to polling stations; getting star speakers and picking up the tab for their travel, lodging and boarding; and other miscellaneous expenditure"

Hindu : Unofficial cost of fighting elections
http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/06/stories/2009040660001400.htm

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/88992/30-mins-find-out-who-is-funding-which-party-this-polls.html


Donations to political parties are exempt of Income Tax. There are several dummy political parties which do not engage politically but use the party status for tax savings. Election Commission cannot derecognise political parties, though they requested that this power be given to them. As a result, there may be 100s of disfunctional registered political parties in India today.

Many politicians are very rich, with assets work many crores !
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/89813/declared-wealth-of-candidates-has-gone-up-by-400-pc.html

About the first General Election, 1952

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/89014/1st-general-election-a-risk-that-paid-off-guha.html